Tsuzura Sayanaga
is a kunoichi of Kirigakure and a member of Hakuya. As a member of the Sayanaga clan, Tsuzura has garnered much renown for her considerable prowess with the Water Release; she is considered a grand master in this field, unparalleled by all except those who stand at the very apex of her clan’s hierarchy. As a member of Hakuya, moreover, Tsuzura’s presence commands deference from the common citizens and shinobi of Kiri. This respect, however, is not due to the perceived superiority of the Hakuya, but rather a genuine admiration of the duties which are performed by its members, and by extension, Tsuzura. Background Tsuzura was born into a tumultuous era in the village of Kirigakure, a period in which civil unrest was prevalent and internal strife all too commonplace. Such disturbance was characteristic of the reign of Yagura, the Mizukage at the time. The Sayanaga clan, members of which were among the chief advisers to the Mizukage’s council, was viewed with a great degree of mistrust by the people of Kirigakure, as it was felt that they were culpable for the highly militaristic and brutal regime which was imposed upon them by the Mizukage. At the age of five, Tsuzura was a survivor of three assassination attempts on herself and her family, all of which were carried out by emboldened “freedom fighters”, as they dubbed themselves. It was by fortuity, and not by skill of mind or body, that Tsuzura escaped the attempts on her life; she was a mere child, after all, and did not have any means to defend herself. Disillusioned by the fact that her life was as frail as a cherry blossom in winter, Tsuzura’s father opted to train her himself in the techniques of the ninja. The training was rigorous and unyielding even in its initial stages; Tsuzura would be asked to throw shuriken and other ninja implements nigh impossible distances, break multiple oaken boards stacked upon one another, and other highly grueling and equally cruel tasks. Only six years old was Tsuzura when this seemingly inhumane form of ninja training commenced, and though she repeatedly and tearfully asked her father for reprieve, he gave her no quarter. Callous and austere though the treatment Tsuzura received from her father may have been, however, it was irrefutable that it was producing results. The young Tsuzura, who had, at the beginning of her training regiment, been weak of body, soon began to display a significant increase in her physical abilities. By the end of her first year, the young ninja could run tirelessly for miles on end over rough terrain at full pelt, a task which she would have been hard-pressed to accomplish prior to the start of her exercise. The diamond in the rough that was Tsuzura was becoming finely honed and polished into an excellent kunoichi. Having felt that Tsuzura was sufficiently prepared for the physical rigors of shinobi life, her father directed his attention towards the control of her chakra. Tsuzura was initially given the task of suspending droplets of water in midair by using her chakra to create a force on them equal and opposite to that exerted by gravity, creating the entrancing effect of transparent orbs dancing through the air according to her will, a rite of passage that had been handed down within the Sayanaga clan from time immemorial. This assignment would prove to one of no great difficulty to Tsuzura, whose predisposition towards the release and manipulation of her chakra made light work of her clan’s customary induction ritual. Tsuzura herself was stunned by her prodigious talents, and soon the young ninja became enthralled by the substance of water, the metaphorical gears and cogs of her intuitive mind running nonstop as she strove to attain higher levels of control over her technique. Even the elders of her clan were compelled to recognize the talents of Tsuzura as being rare and distinguished; Tsuzura had reached the pinnacle of the Dancing Water Drop Technique. Solely by the use of non-elemental chakra, Tsuzura was able to not only suspend innumerable droplets of water above her palms, but maneuver them so that they produced beautiful optical effects due to the internal refraction of light occurring within them. These effects were not limited to mere static pictures, however, but were moving images that were so sophisticated as to be able to convey Tsuzura’s very emotions. Animations of roses, ephemeral beauty epitomized, budding, blossoming, and finally withering; two lovers separated by a wall that was both literal and figurative; a proud warrior being skewered by numerous spears, resisting his mortal enemies even in his throes of death: these were among the many images displayed to the elders of the Sayanaga clan by the kunoichi. The clan elders were simply astounded by Tsuzura’s mastery of her chakra; the exquisitely refined talent which was displayed by her had not only reached the pinnacle of that which was considered humanly possible, it had shattered and redefined it. Word of Tsuzura’s feats was soon promulgated throughout the ranks of the Sayanaga clan, and indeed, Kiri. Ironically, however, those same talents of Tsuzura served to isolate her from her clansmen, as most of her time was spent training with her father and other high-ranking Sayanaga members, leaving her little time in which to recreate with her peers. Even in her free time, Tsuzura would oft be too exhausted from her training to devote much attention to playing with her friends, an activity which she deemed to be trivial. It came as no great surprise to Tsuzura’s mentors that the ninja was able to scale trees as easily as any arboreal creature on her first try, using only chakra emitted from the soles of her feet; such exercises were, by that time, second nature to her. She likewise mastered the technique of walking on water. Tsuzura fell in love with the freedom of movement that such application of her chakra allowed; she could just as easily spend an evening at the top of a coniferous tree as she could spend it walking upon the surface of a lake, trying to discern what could lie in its murky depths. As a result of her consistent exposure to a world of nature untainted by the enterprises of man, Tsuzura soon became enamored with the many forms of wildlife with which she came into contact. Aquatic life, in particular, held a special allure for Tsuzura; when came such time as she was free to do as she wished, Tsuzura would spend hours with her body submerged in the sea, playfully frolicking about with the marine creatures which resided there. The young kunoichi had a penchant for interacting with those creatures, it was discovered, as even bestial animals such as sharks were assuaged by the kindred spirit they perceived in Tsuzura. Personality Appearance Abilities Story Roleplays Trivia *Tsuzura is derived from Tsuzurafuji (葛藤), the Japanese word for "Chinese moonseed". The Chinese moonseed is traditionally used as herbal medicine in Asian countries such as Japan and China, its most prominent use being treatment of arthritic pains. *When written as 葛篭, Tsuzura means "wicker clothes hamper". *Tsuzura's surname, , literally means "spear squid". This is an allusion to both Tsuzura's predilection for interacting with marine life and her sheer prowess with water-related techniques. Creation and Conception